Crazy, crazy game today. Both teams found ways to bat themselves out of dominant positions over the course of the afternoon. Summer Fields (main local rivals in North Oxford and prep school of Gubby Allen among others) chose to bat first and made good progress to 113/3 before our leggie made a huge mess of their lower order, taking 7/18 to skittle them for 135.

This put us in the box seats, however I had once again forgotten that our top order all have the middle name “Wendy”, and whenever anyone with any kind of pace comes on then they need a change of underwear. It was 0/1 after one ball, and though we made 43/1, the middle order were then busy racing each other to see who could use their feet the least. With 11 overs to go, the game was clearly all over, bar the shouting.

Dragon 75/7 – 61 runs required with 67 balls remaining

Or not, if our tail had anything to do with it. Numbers 8 & 9 added 32 in even time for the eighth wicket, in the process hitting a forward defensive for a six that cleared the long off ropes by 20 yards. Unfortunately, instead of triggering “look how well I’m timing it, I don’t need to hit out”, it triggered “imagine how far it would go if I really hit it” and he was bowled next ball.

Dragon 107/8 – 28 runs required with 36 balls remaining

The next batsman in was told that, as we weren’t Cheltenham, we were not about to give up and bat for the draw, and to keep getting on with it (see previous posts...). A slash through slip kept the run rate up, and #8 then lifted one returning opening bowler over mid on for four more. Runs and balls stayed tight, but as the run rate edged above one-a-ball, #10 tried one shot too many and was cleaned up.

Dragon 126/9 – 10 runs required with 7 balls remaining

#11 blocked out the next ball, before #8 had the task of taking on their best bowler (7-2-15-2) for the last over. The first ball was swivel-pulled for four. The second skidded through the keeper but the ast man, under orders, turned down the single. The next ball was hoisted over midwicket for four more.

Dragon 134/9 – 2 runs required with 3 balls remaining

The next delivery dropped off the pads onto the leg side, and we stayed put again. Perhaps with hindsight we should have run it, and we certainly would have done had we got anything on the fifth ball of the over. As it was, he didn’t and the keeper took it well.

Dragon 134/9 – 2 runs required with 1 ball remaining

It was pushed down the leg side, the batsman had a go but couldn’t connect and the #11 scampered through for the bye. The batsman, however, criminally wasn’t quite on the same wavelength as everybody else as he showed far too little interest in coming back for the second, and after some chaos, #11 was run out at the keeper’s end (they hadn’t even crossed on the second) - although we wouldn't have made it, even if we'd gone for it properly.

Dragon 135 all out - Match Tied

The right result, and a great end to the 11-a-side season. Not often you can truly say that all four results were possible right until the very last ball.

05-07-2011, 03:05 PM

Neil Pickup

Today was the South of England regional finals for the English Schools' 8-a-side pairs competition. We'd qualified after winning the Oxfordshire round fairly comfortably without ever playing particularly well, and today followed the same pattern - a generally awful performance against Ryde School, IoW champions, which still led to a win thanks to a flurry of extras having been on -9 after four balls chasing +37.

This set up a "final" against Yateley Manor, Hants, as the rainclouds started to mass. There was talk -and practice - of a bowl out, but we settled on a reduced 8-overs-per-side format. Our batting was exponentially better, making +52 after only losing a single wicket, and though the rain became heavier at the innings break, we resolved not to come off unless a pair of ducks started mating at square leg. With the ball swinging and seaming like Headingley of old, our seamers delivered the goods with a full house of full, straight, effective bowling - backed up by outstanding fielding -'to take six wickets and restrict Yateley to +28.

Next Tuesday, we travel north to Repton School for the Nationals - we're officially one of the Top 8 schools in the country - just how high can we finish?

13-07-2011, 03:49 PM

Neil Pickup

The answer was seventh, after two one-run defeats despite missing our two best batsmen. Heads held high - next year...

TonightSunningwell 146/7Hendred 94

We looked thoroughly short at 60/5 after 8 of our 15 (8-ball) overs but a good effort from the lower order got us up to what was just about par. I came in with the score on 133 with seven balls left and made 3* as well as turning several ones into twos.

In reply, the fourth ball was nicked straight through to me, and Hendred never recovered. We kept chipping away, taking regular wickets, and knocked them over well short of the target with three overs to spare. I had two stumpings, the first of which followed two boundaries and the comment "I've never seen this guy bowl before, and now I think I know why..."

23-07-2011, 02:44 PM

Neil Pickup

Wednesday: Sunningwell 121/6 beat Quantel 99/7The pitch looked like a mudflat at low tide, and I must have played and missed at least ten times on my way to one of the worst 22s ever compiled, in spite of a one-bounce four over midwicket: somewhat ironically I ended up bowled by a full toss that I tried to put through the scorebox. Our tally then proved to be more than sufficient as their batsmen couldn't time it either: no byes, one catch and one (diving across where second slip would have been) drop.

Saturday: Sunningwell 78/7 beat Wolvercote 76Looks like a minefield but really wasn't. We had them 2/4 and then 29/9 before 10 and Jack managed, somehow, to skew themselves up to 76 thanks to several dropped catches. No byes again, and I had the bails off several times, but only appealed once, and that weren't out either... also thought I had a caught-behind down the legside, but that turned out to be thighpad. Alas, the difference between pad and bat wasn't clear enough when one flicked my leg in the fourth over of our reply, and so 10/0 swiftly became 30/5 and 58/7. Happily, their two opening bowlers were now bowled out, and they dropped the chances that then came off the change bowlers, and we came out of it with 27 points.

03-08-2011, 05:20 PM

Neil Pickup

Saturday: Sunningwell I 216/9 beat Oxenford II 199Top of the table clash with an understrength team, yet Oxenford are no longer unbeaten. A brilliant 126 from our opener made up for running me out for 1, by at least six yards, and then a really good team effort in the field kept the lid on things after a quick start. Six byes (four of which I'm convinced were leg byes) and one catch (which was juggled, horribly).

Wednesday: Downlanders 190/5 beat Sunningwell 163/5We bowled and fielded like a bunch of morons. No byes, but that was because I was busy clothing wides instead - also shelled an utterly regulation nick in MS Dhoni style. We then ended up getting far closer to the target than looked likely after I somehow discovered that I could put the ball into the neighbouring gardens, and made 36 off 26 balls. I hadn't hit a six since April 2007, and I hit two tonight in the space of four balls. The first came right out of the middle as I skipped down the track to pick up a leg-spinner on the half volley, and landed on the roof of the nets about 80m away, and the second was a juicy leg stump full toss that disappeared over square leg. I was bowled in the last over, trying to back away and carve a left-armer over cover in search of a miracle.

Career average watch: 533 runs @ 8.60

03-08-2011, 06:03 PM

Marcuss

You've kept track of your entire career?

04-08-2011, 05:17 AM

Neil Pickup

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcuss

You've kept track of your entire career?

Yes. Way back to my first innings as an U13, and the miserable early days when my average slipped below 1, then below 0.5... good (I think) to look back now and see the improvement - 12 ducks in 26 innings summed up my early years as a batsman rather well.

I still haven't decided if I'm delighted or gutted after that one. In all honesty, I didn't think I was close, but none of the last 22 balls of my innings were dot balls, and I could barely walk at the end of it. I really shouldn't have run a bye off the penultimate ball of the innings - and the other guys claimed they shouted my score out at this point - but I was long past caring, or trying to do anything beyond hit the ball as hard as I physically could. Final stats were 62 balls, 79 minutes, and four fours.

I can see why Sangakkara doesn't like keeping and batting, let's put it that way.

Final season stats: 201 @ 16.75; career stats: 633 @ 9.59. I scored more today than I did in my first 21 innings combined.

03-09-2011, 04:09 PM

marc71178

60 extras? Even with your best ever innings you've been beaten by the opposition!

28-10-2011, 12:55 AM

Hurricane

cricket season starts in NZ tomorrow - looks like rain though.

28-10-2011, 02:10 AM

jan

Joined a club in april. Played in 3 official matches with no essential entry in the scorebook:

a t20 in which our bowler got himself injured in the first over and I was the only other guy available in the area so I substituted, played in a borrowed t-shirt and non-sporting shoes

a t20 where I achieved 0 runs not out

a 40-overs which I liked the most because playing in whites feels like real cricket compared to t20

Plus a few friendlies. I was mostly out for a duck or lbw. My firts lbw brought me my first sport injury ever as the ball hit me straight on my toe, had to go to emergency but it got fine soon. I tasted the sweet feeling of taking a wicket as well - the batsman shamefully got caught from my low and slow and straight delivery...the previous 4 huge wides distracted him :D
Invested about 50 Ł into equipment (a box, gloves, t20 outfit, whites). Met nice people and enjoyed watching and playing as well as practicing in the nets. Working on getting fitter for next season and waiting for winter indoor league.

28-10-2011, 06:01 AM

Riggins

Not my team, but this would have been a pretty **** day for one of the sides...lol

We have 2 good batsman in our team who will average thirty this year. We have 4 of us who will average 20 and then we have the tail who will average 2 or 3 runs each. At least that it what they averaged last year.

One of our good batsman had the flu this game. So we knew we were in tough.

We lost the toss and batted first. Our star player, our skipper, played slowly and cautiously and anchored the inning with a 32 before running out of partners and skying the ball while trying to hit out. Wides contributed 25 - next highest score was my 9. I was out lbw trying to attack the ball when I should have defended it like I have been practising (have a long standing lbw problem).
All out for 101.

We have one star bowler - Luke - he opened the bowling and quickly got amongst them. Luke could be playing a higher grade but somehow isn't. Two quick slip catches and another catch at sillymid off and they were 15-3.

I was fielding at gully after telling the captain at 38 years old I was getting too old to field in the covers. I waited patiently for my chances to come.

A partnership started and took the score through to 65. Then it was drinks break. After drinks we got the breakthrough.

Then 2 overs later Luke was brought back on to make further in roads. He bowled one right in the blockhole. The ball squirted out to my right and I took a good catch. But we weren't sure if it was a bump ball but the umpire gave it. So we didn't argue.

One by one they lost their wickets and were all out for 91. We won by 10 runs. Pretty intense game.